Is the Mobius Action Camera dependable?

[jahall4]

I was ready to buy one because of shroud availability, but held short when I learned that the very rocket, camera, and shroud that got me interested failed to capture the actual flight. Even worse for the flyer it was a successful L3 :-( What is perplexing is that he has footage before the launch and after it landed, but NO flight footage.

 

[scsager]

I have two Mobius action cams. Both have never failed, as long as I remember to turn them on correctly.!!!

However... there are newer, better cameras available. I recently picked up a Runcam (same price range as the Mobius) >> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019175DMW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This has 1080p 60fps video and WIFI which allows you to start recording using an app on your phone.

I would have to take a wild guess that your friend turned the Mobius OFF at the pad, then turned it back on during recovery. Either that, or he has a defective camera that disconnected itself during boost...

 

[noffie79]

I have two Möbius cameras as well. Neither one has failed me yet.

 

[djs]

I had one that had one good flight video, and then never worked again. I think it might've had a little bit of a hard landing (main on the rocket was reefed). Unfortunately my emails to buymobius were never answered, as I was hoping I could fix it myself and/or replace some components to get it working again.

 

[cvanc]

I've flung them to the ground from several thousand feet up - as long as they weren't smashed flat (and a couple of them were ) they worked fine.

Agree that it might have been confusion over when it was on and when it was off - I've done that myself.

 

[Sabrina]

Rocket crashed... Mobius battery smashed...

Installed a replacement battery from Ebay - and it still works just fine.

 

[djs]

I think I swapped the battery on mine, but if not, I'll try that again. What's strange is that I can't get mine to work or connect reliably even when plugged into my computer. Methinks this bypasses a battery problem?

Either way, I might try the one that SCSager posted. My one dislike of the mobius (other than the whole "not working" problem) is that it doesn't lend itself well to electrical tape attachment to a body tube. 808 cameras are a little better in that regard.

 

[jahall4]

However... there are newer, better cameras available. I recently picked up a Runcam (same price range as the Mobius) >> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019175DMW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Does someone make a rocket specific shroud for the Runcam like they do for the Mobius?

 

[jahall4]

Agree that it might have been confusion over when it was on and when it was off - I've done that myself.

Maybe, but he says it recorded them walking up to the rocket after the flight.

 

[cvanc]

Maybe, but he says it recorded them walking up to the rocket after the flight.

Oh. Then that's weird. Memory card coming loose under thrust, perhaps (although why it would start recording again once on the ground is a head-scratcher)?

 

[jahall4]

Oh. Then that's weird. Memory card coming loose under thrust, perhaps (although why it would start recording again once on the ground is a head-scratcher)?

I'm thinking whatever forces caused the change under thrust might be the opposite direction under recovery or landing.

 

[retortec]

I have been flying the same Mobius camera almost two years with no problems. Over a dozen flights in a shroud on my Estes Ventris. I also mounted laterally in a modified Estes Partizon. That one got boosted over 425 mph with no problems.

 

[Ravenex]

I hoped to be releasing a new shroud product for the mobius in a month or so.

 

[jahall4]

I have been flying the same Mobius camera almost two years with no problems. Over a dozen flights in a shroud on my Estes Ventris. I also mounted laterally in a modified Estes Partizon. That one got boosted over 425 mph with no problems.

View attachment 307308 View attachment 307309

Nice!

 

[mpitfield]

I have two and have not had a problem yet, although I have only used them once each. I have flown with guys who have used them longer and much more often and I can tell that in 100% of the cases where they lost or did not capture video it was for one of two reasons. They forgot to turn it on, or the battery ran out. Not to say that they are 100% reliable but they seem reliable enough for the price point.

 

[woferry]

I've flown my Mobius a bunch of times, very happy with it. My videos are in my signature link. I had a bit of trouble in the beginning, all pilot error. First issue I had popped the card out after the first flight to see the footage, then loaded the camera into my second rocket not realizing that the SD card was still in my computer. Didn't realize it until I was at the pad and the record LED wouldn't stay lit. I always check the LED to ensure its recording and haven't had it miss a flight, though I did run out of SD space once before the flight. I've crashed two of them in ballistic flights, first one the SD card ejected on impact and I never found it in the field, camera was dented and never powered-up again. Second time the SD stayed in as I started adding a strip of electrical tape on the back to help hold it in, but it didn't really matter as the SD card couldn't be read by my computers afterwards (couldn't even be formatted). So much for Monster "rugged" SD cards. That Mobius looked intact but also refused to power-up. A few other hard landings on drogue-only weren't issues, I had one flight at LDRS this year where the video stopped on impact (audio kept going), but the camera was fine afterwards.

Still have another Mobius that I'm flying, though I've also picked up a Firefly Q6 that I'm looking forward to giving a go as soon as I design & print a shroud for it, it's 1080p/60 instead of 30fps, I also like that its lens is mounted in the center instead of offset, slightly better line down the airframe. Same basic dims as the Mobius though it is a bit longer. The Mobius Mini looked interesting and is also 1080p/60, but I didn't like the short battery life as the fields I launch at can have some pretty long pad wait times, I've often had 15-20 or even 30 minutes from when my rocket is fully-prepped until the actual flight. So it's great that they made it smaller, but the smaller battery makes it unappealing to me. I also have all of the bits for a Rocket-Pi Zero, but still have some work to do before I'll be ready to fly it.

 

[jahall4]

...though I've also picked up a Firefly Q6 that I'm looking forward to giving a go as soon as I design & print a shroud for it

That's a big help Will. Do you sell shrouds?

 

[cvanc]

Hey Jahall, here's a question for you:

Your friends' bad recording... did it record SOMETHING (black, static,... anything) during the duration of the flight? In other words was the total recording the right length but the middle part of the recording (the flight) just didn't contain picture information? Also, was sound still recorded during this blank interval?

If yes, I think maybe the ribbon connector from the lens assembly to the main circuit board inside the camera might be loose. The main board does the actual recording but the lens assembly sends the pictures down that ribbon to get to the memory card. Maybe it's partially plugged in and gets intermittent under thrust?

Just a wild-hair guess but wanted to pass it along.

 

[jahall4]

Hey Jahall, here's a question for you:

Your friends' bad recording... did it record SOMETHING (black, static,... anything) during the duration of the flight? In other words was the total recording the right length but the middle part of the recording (the flight) just didn't contain picture information? Also, was sound still recorded during this blank interval?

If yes, I think maybe the ribbon connector from the lens assembly to the main circuit board inside the camera might be loose. The main board does the actual recording but the lens assembly sends the pictures down that ribbon to get to the memory card. Maybe it's partially plugged in and gets intermittent under thrust?

Just a wild-hair guess but wanted to pass it along.

Good question... It sounds like he has files with video before the launch and one after (before they retrieved the rocket). These cameras of course have to split out the file so I'm wondering if the 2nd file of 3 files did not get written out to the SD card.

 

[Zebedee]

I've also picked up a Firefly Q6 that I'm looking forward to giving a go as soon as I design & print a shroud for it

I've been looking at cameras to put in a level 3 project including the Q6 so would also love to hear your impressions of it after you've flown it.

I was a little concerned about the 50min batt life (you can wait a while at Balls to get launched) & I saw one bad review about the picture quality on amazon but not sure if that was user error or not (gotta take those things with a large pinch of salt).

 

[watermelonman]

I have probably hit Mobius cameras repeatedly with more G forces than most. At minimum multiple K2045s, multiple L935s, K1440, L1115, M3700, internal and external. You can see many of those flights here -
https://vimeo.com/user40316715

I have now rendered both of my Mobius cameras unusable. They are not made for the amount of force I have been applying. They take it for a while, but eventually the internals get flaky. I am talking to them about both discounted replacements. Asking about a more reinforced unit did not make much progress.

 

[jahall4]

I have probably hit Mobius cameras repeatedly with more G forces than most. At minimum multiple K2045s, multiple L935s, K1440, L1115, M3700, internal and external. You can see many of those flights here -
https://vimeo.com/user40316715

I have now rendered both of my Mobius cameras unusable. They are not made for the amount of force I have been applying. They take it for a while, but eventually the internals get flaky. I am talking to them about both discounted replacements. Asking about a more reinforced unit did not make much progress.

I'm not surprised given what they cost, but in the case I mention it was the first time that unit rode a rocket. I am curious who you asked about a replacement and what was their response?

 

[Hardline]

How long was it from the time you started the camera to when you went to pick it up? How much capacity does your card have?
You may need to check your settings on a computer using the program mSetup.exe to see if your mobius is set up to write over prior files after a certain length of time (loop-recording is enabled).

The manual is on this website:

https://www.mytempfiles.info/mobius/MobiusManual.pdf

refer to the section about "cards" (page 2) and also about "loop Recording" (page 13)

mSetup.exe you can download from here:

https://www.mobius-actioncam.com/downloads-info/

I currently have three Mobius cameras (had 4 but Wayne burned one up at Airfest in a beautiful exploding pinwheel cato.....) and have found that every now and then the programming will .... "slip" is the best word I can think of. To fix it I hook the mobius up to mSetup.exe and reprogram it. That is what works for me. YMMV

Good luck!

 

[woferry]

That's a big help Will. Do you sell shrouds?

No, I don't want to compete with anyone like Landru, and my design was very much inspired by his so I'd feel like I was copying it anyhow. Plus I just wouldn't be able to keep up on either the printing time or taking orders / shipping them. When I have something I do want to chat with him for a bit to see if he's either interested in taking it, or if he wouldn't object to me posting the files. I do all of my designs in OpenSCAD so it's really just code and changing parameters like hole positions, sizes, etc. is pretty trivial. I did basically clone his Mobius shroud in my code and printed one for myself that I've flown, as one of my purchased shrouds deformed when left in the field in the sun, so I needed to replace it as I couldn't get my Mobius to fit in it anymore (at least on that rocket I had only screwed the shroud in rather than epoxying it as I had done on other rockets).

 

[jahall4]

No, I don't want to compete with anyone like Landru, and my design was very much inspired by his so I'd feel like I was copying it anyhow. Plus I just wouldn't be able to keep up on either the printing time or taking orders / shipping them. When I have something I do want to chat with him for a bit to see if he's either interested in taking it, or if he wouldn't object to me posting the files. I do all of my designs in OpenSCAD so it's really just code and changing parameters like hole positions, sizes, etc. is pretty trivial. I did basically clone his Mobius shroud in my code and printed one for myself that I've flown, as one of my purchased shrouds deformed when left in the field in the sun, so I needed to replace it as I couldn't get my Mobius to fit in it anymore (at least on that rocket I had only screwed the shroud in rather than epoxying it as I had done on other rockets).

Understand, I wasn't asking for explanation just trying to find sources for shrouds. The only one I'm aware of for the mobius is: https://additive-aerospace.myshopify.com/collections/video-camera-shrouds

 

[tim cubbedge]

I have probably hit Mobius cameras repeatedly with more G forces than most. At minimum multiple K2045s, multiple L935s, K1440, L1115, M3700, internal and external. You can see many of those flights here -
https://vimeo.com/user40316715

I have now rendered both of my Mobius cameras unusable. They are not made for the amount of force I have been applying. They take it for a while, but eventually the internals get flaky. I am talking to them about both discounted replacements. Asking about a more reinforced unit did not make much progress.

How many flights you figure before it crapped out?

 

[Ravenex]

Understand, I wasn't asking for explanation just trying to find sources for shrouds. The only one I'm aware of for the mobius is: https://additive-aerospace.myshopify.com/collections/video-camera-shrouds

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=137397

I should have these out in February if you can wait.

 

[jahall4]

I should have these out in February if you can wait.

...a composite (instead of plastic) shroud for the mobius Action cam?

 

[Ravenex]

Yes, molded carbon through wall for the shroud, machined phenolic for the carrier.

 

[jahall4]

Yes, molded carbon through wall for the shroud, machined phenolic for the carrier.

Very cool. Can't wait for our current project (https://www.facebook.com/TheMarvinWrightRocket/) unless you can send us a prototype?

I have got to get a couple more test flights in before spring.